By Jonathan Mao • UC Davis 2014

Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, is one of the top energy experts featured in a new energy documentary titled “Switch.”

Sperling assesses the use of electric vehicles, including hybrids and plug-in hybrids. In addition, Sperling discusses the forthcoming transition from older forms of energy to more sustainable forms, and predicts which energy sources will be most prominent during this shift.

A free screening of “Switch” was hosted by the UC Davis Department of Geology on Tuesday, April 23. Scott W. Tinker, one of the film’s producers, introduced the film and answered questions afterwards. Tinker is director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.

To view the trailer for “Switch,” visit: http://www.switchenergyproject.com/aboutfilm.php

For more about the film, including screening schedules, visit: http://www.switchenergyproject.com/index.php

 

Photo: A scene in “Switch” where Dan Sperling (left) talks with Scott W. Tinker, the narrator and co-producer of the film

By Alston Lim • UC Davis 2014

The UC Davis Plug-in Hybrid and Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Research Center and its pioneering research in alternative fuel vehicles were the recent focus of a MotorWeek segment as part of the program’s “Clean Cities” series.

The one-minute segment began airing on March 16 on PBS stations nationwide, and highlights the center’s expertise in evaluating consumer behaviors, vehicle technologies, batteries and charging-station needs.

Richard Battersby, director of Fleet Services at UC Davis, applauds the university’s ability to not only do research and make recommendations, but also “practice what we preach” by “setting the example ourselves”.

View the MotorWeek segment at: http://www.motorweek.org/features/green_motoring/clean_cities_success_uc_davis

 

 

 

Two UC Davis transportation and energy experts were among the first thought leaders invited into a new Wall Street Journal online discussion space. The Journal calls The Experts “an exclusive group of industry and thought leaders who will engage in in-depth online discussions of topics.”

On March 26, ITS-Davis director Daniel Sperling was one of the first three people interviewed on video by WSJ Reports editor Charlie Wells. The topic: Can renewables survive oil’s resurgence?

The 40-minute program was a lively discussion among Sperling, Kate Gordon, vice president and director of the Energy & Climate Program at Next Generation, and Todd Myers, environmental director at the Washington Policy Center.

On March 25-27, Amy Myers Jaffe, UC Davis executive director of energy and sustainability, was first to post written remarks at The Experts, with the headlines “An Oil Boom Means Washington—Not Riyadh—Could Become the World’s Swing Oil Producer,” “The ‘Oil Weapon’ Will Lose Potency” and “The Clean-Tech Path Needs a Revamp.”

 The video is not available online. Read some of Jaffe’s remarks: http://stream.wsj.com/story/experts-journal-reports/SS-2-135503/SS-2-196847/

By Alston Lim • UC Davis 2014

Daniel Sperling, the founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis, spoke at the UC Davis School of Law Environmental Law Symposium on April 12 on the current and future state of public transportation in California.

Sperling was featured on a panel that focused on the goals and current legal issues relating to SB 375, the landmark 2008 California legislation that integrates the state’s land use, transportation and greenhouse gas emissions policies.

The panel discussed how SB 375 can achieve targeted GHG emission reduction targets and create incentives to reward local governments for sustainable land use and transportation decisions; and how best to measure and forecast compliance with SB 375.

For more information about the symposium, including panel descriptions, visit http://students.law.ucdavis.edu/ELS/2013/index.html

Photo: Riders board a Sacramento Regional Transit District light-rail train in March 2012. Photo by Sylvia Wright, UC Davis

By Jamie Knapp • J Knapp Communications

In today’s connected world, Wi-Fi is available almost everywhere, it seems. Free Wi-Fi, first offered in coffee shops and public buildings, is now ubiquitous in retail stores, hotels, airports and even on passenger trains in the U.S. and abroad.

Is it valuable? Yes, according to new UC Davis research conducted for the Amtrak Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority in Northern California.

The findings are described in a new ITS-Davis report, “Did Free Wi-Fi Make a Difference to Amtrak’s Capital Corridor Service? An Evaluation of the Impact on Riders and Ridership.” The report’s authors are Professor Patricia Mokhtarian, student researchers Amanda J. Neufeld and Zhi Dong, and post-doctoral researcher Giovanni Circella.

The researchers find that a majority of riders surveyed rank free Wi-Fi service as extremely important. This majority holds within each age group under 75. Free Wi-Fi service is especially important to commuters, 79% of whom accessed the Internet during their trip. The research attributes a 2.7% increase in round trips between 2011 and 2012 to free Wi-Fi aboard trains.

The UC Davis report outlines the survey methods, analytical approach, results and recommendations for further research. The researchers collected more than 1,500 passenger surveys over a three-day period onboard Capitol Corridor trains in March 2012, three months after Amtrak had launched its free Wi-Fi service on the route. Amtrak had previously introduced free Wi-Fi connectivity on trains in the Northeast Corridor and Pacific Northwest, and sought to evaluate its impact on passengers’ travel behavior.

The primary goals of the study were to assess riders’ reactions to the Wi-Fi service on board, to develop a model of the choice to use the free AmtrakConnect Wi-Fi, and to estimate the change in ridership due to the addition of free Wi-Fi.

Amtrak’s free Wi-Fi business model had predicted that a 1% to 2% inducement in ridership would offset its capital and operating costs.

“Our research indicates that free Wi-Fi has been a win-win – both as an amenity for Capitol Corridor riders and as a revenue-booster for Amtrak,” said Mokhtarian.

Read the full report, visit http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/?page_id=10063&pub_id=1845

 

Photo credit: Thinkstock / Digital Vision

By Jamie Knapp • J Knapp Communications

Richard Plevin, a scientist with expertise in life cycle modeling, analysis and carbon accounting associated with transportation fuels, has joined the UC Davis research faculty as an assistant professional researcher.

For the last decade, Plevin has been conducting research and consulting to governmental and non-governmental agencies on carbon accounting and environmental policy. He received master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley in 2006 and 2010, and has been an assistant researcher with the Berkeley campus’ Transportation Sustainability Research Center since finishing his Ph.D.

Plevin is a lead contributor to the University of California research team that is providing technical guidance to the California Air Resources Board on the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). That team is led by ITS-Davis research scientist Sonia Yeh.

“Rich has played a critical role in developing the tool, the methodology and the data for supporting the fuel pathways analyses for the LCFS,” said Yeh. “We are delighted he is joining us.”

Given his work with ITS-Davis researchers in recent years, Plevin’s move here is a natural transition. His work complements numerous ongoing projects at ITS-Davis, including the transition modeling underway in the NextSTEPs program, Mark Delucchi and Alissa Kendall’s lifecycle emissions analyses, and Nathan Parker’s biomass and biofuels production modeling.

“I like collaboration, working in a team environment,” Plevin says. “I’m excited about this opportunity to be formally affiliated with one of the nation’s top carbon and fuels modeling teams.”

Plevin also serves on the transport chapter team of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, which is set for publication in 2014. ITS-Davis NextSTEPS program co-director Lew Fulton is also on that review team. Fulton, whose own work entails global energy transition modeling, admires Plevin’s expertise in land use change modeling.

“To understand how growing crops for biofuels affects land use in other places – and to try to gauge the net effect – is a critical area of study at this time,” Fulton says. “I’m very glad Rich will be joining us so we can learn from him on this and other issues.”

For one so accomplished in transportation studies, Plevin is a relative newcomer. His early degrees in mathematics and computer science led him to a 20-year career in software design for the financial services industry. His priorities changed around the year 2000.

“I had this epiphany in a hotel room during a business trip to Tokyo,” he said. The second IPCC report had just come out, California was mired in an energy crisis and the media buzz over global warming was palpable.

Plus, he had a newborn daughter.

“I was concerned about her and where the planet was heading. I wanted to engage on climate change and still use my technical background.”

A decade later, Plevin has succeeded in combining his skills into a career that provides intellectual stimulation and a sense of purpose – and that still allows him to work complex software challenges on sophisticated computers.

Photo: Rich Plevin, February 14, 2013. Photo by Dorian Toy, UC Davis

On Thursday, February 28, the University of California Center Sacramento (UCCS) teamed up with Capitol Weekly to present a day-long conference on California’s new “cap and trade” program. State Senator Fran Pavley, author of California’s landmark AB 32, delivered the noon keynote.

As with past Capitol Weekly-UCCS events, the conference was divided into three panels, in addition to Pavley’s keynote. Topics included the logistics of cap-and-trade, financial impacts on industry and the state, environmental benefits and — of course — the politics of cap-and-trade.

Among the panelists were Anthony Eggert of the UC Davis Policy Institute; Timothy O’Connor of the Environmental Defense Fund; Dorothy Rothrock of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association; and Linda Adams, former administrator of Cal EPA.

Watch all the videos from the conference here

Watch the video of Anthony Eggert’s panel below:

 

Photo caption: Anthony Eggert, director of the UC Davis Policy Institute on Energy, Environment and the Economy, at the California Capitol. Photo credit: Sylvia Wright, UC Davis

 

About 50 ITS-Davis researchers are participating in the 92^nd annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 13-17, 2013 in Washington, DC. Their presentations are listed below with session number, title, date, time, location, paper title, and authors. (ITS-Davis presenters are listed by name only; other presenters are listed by institution as well.)

Click here for a full schedule of ITS-Davis presentations

By Alston Lim • UC Davis 2014

Three articles by ITS-Davis researchers are featured in the latest issue of the University of California Transportation Center’s ACCESS Magazine. The articles, which range from domestic policy subjects to topics of international consequences, translate the findings of ITS-Davis research into pertinent material for the magazine’s global audience.

In “Peering Inside the Pork Barrel,” Gian-Claudia Sciara discusses ways to improve transparency and effectiveness of federal transportation funding earmarks. Although recent fiscal pressures from the economic crisis have forced both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives to temporarily suspend the practice of earmarking federal funding to transport projects, Sciara suggests it will inevitably resume. She thus focuses on what elected officials and agency leaders can do to coordinate earmarks with their regional and state transport plans and explains how members of Congress can adjust their own practices to make future earmarks more compatible with planned investments. Sciara is a postdoctoral scholar at the Urban Land Use and Transportation Center (ULTRANS).

In “Double the Fuel Economy, Half the CO2 Emissions, and Even Automakers Like It,” Nic Lutsey discusses the political and stakeholder process and the technical underpinnings of the recently finalized 2017-2025 federal standards on fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission for light-duty vehicles. Lutsey provides a clear look at the challenges and solutions that automakers, regulators and stakeholders addressed and offers insight into the ways that the federal standards interact with California’s vehicle greenhouse and Zero Emission Vehicle regulations. But most importantly, Lutsey illustrates the significance of these new vehicle efficiency standards in terms of their impact on consumers and their broader societal benefit. As a postdoctoral researcher at ITS-Davis, Lutsey served as a research consultant for the California Air Resources Board while the agency worked with federal regulators on these new standards. He recently joined the International Council on Clean Transportation as a program director.

The third article is a collaboration between Yunshi Wang, director of the UC Davis China Center on Energy and Transportation; Jacob Teter, a graduate student researcher at ITS-Davis; and Daniel Sperling, founding director of ITS-Davis. It examines the implications of a rise in China’s vehicle population for both the environment and global energy resources. In “Will China’s Vehicle Population Grow Even Faster than Forecasted?” the ITS-Davis authors studied the historical growth of large vehicle-producing countries, in order to project China’s annual vehicle growth. Their data show how rapid motorization in China could threaten global oil supplies and exacerbate climate change.

The articles are available in the 41^st edition of the publication, which also marks the magazine’s 20^th anniversary.

Photo: The Gravina Island Bridge, originally funded by a $223 million earmark in the 2005 federal highway transportation bill, would have linked Ketchikan, Alaska, with Gravina Island. It became famous as a “bridge to nowhere” in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. It was never built. Credit: Conceptual rendering by Gravina Access Project, 2001.